Thursday, December 13, 2007

Daryl Katz has made an offer for the team! And Cal Nichols supports it!

"Mr. Katz called Cal Nichols, Founding Chairman of the Board of EIG this morning to outline the terms and conditions of the offer. Mr. Nichols said that it was an offer that he would enthusiastically support."

Chris! Update: As confusingly named commenter "another mike w" mentioned in the thread to this post, TSN reporting that Katz has tabled a $188-million offer. This represents a $15-million hike on the bid he came at the EIG with back in July and a significant overpay, considering that Forbes put the franchise's value at $157-million just last month.

This latest bid also offers $118-million more than what the EIG bought the team for in 1998 — a pretty sweet return on an investment that's not yet even 10 years old. No wonder Nichols is so enthusiastic.

TSN says a news conference has been called for 7 p.m. ET tonight. I assume 630 or 1260 will be on top of it.

And in other WTF news, the Flyers just signed two-way forward Mike Richards to a 12-year, $69-million deal for some reason. Does that make him their new franchise player?

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comments:

And know there's some feasibility study talking head on team 1260 bigging up Katz's charitable work, contributions to the city and all around swellness. Apparently Nicholls was on before him. Anybody hear him?

I wonder how much the new arena really plays into this. For a profitable team bought on the cheap, was it simply the right time to cash in once they realized they couldn't finance a new arena without risk?

considering that Forbes put the franchise's value at $157-million just last month.

Can we please stop pretending that the Forbes numbers actually reflect the true value of the team?Because I think it's been clearly demonstrated at least a few dozen times that they don't. If you want a somewhat relevant benchmark for the value of an NHL franchise, then you're probably better off referencing the most recent sales, and not the nonesense garbage that Forbes throws out there.

I've seen a few Philly games this year. Richards is currently Mr. Everything for them. He's like Horcoff lite. Plays on the PP, PK, and EV, getting it done on all 3. Out there for important faceoffs. If he keeps developing like this, or even maintains his currently pace he's worth a minimum of 5 million per.

That said, 5.75 for a guy that hasn't been around 4 years is quite a bit.